Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadows traces the tempestuous romance of America's most noted African-American literary couple. Drawing on a variety of love letters, diaries, journals, and autobiographies, Steven Allen dramatizes Dunbar's and Moore's tumultuous affair, from a courtship conducted almost entirely through letters and an elopement brought on by Dunbar's brutal, drunken rape of Moore, through their passionate marriage and its eventual violent dissolution in 1902.

This is a remarkable story of tragic romance among African-American elites struggling to define themselves and their relationships within the context of post-slavery America.